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Abstract

1. Introduction Evident growing global, business challenges and market uncertainties make it pertinent for organisations to ensure employees are satisfied and commitment to carrying assigned task. Further, organisations are required to consistently engage in research that will result in innovating ideas to ensure they remain competitive and satisfy increasing consumers demand for new products and improved quality service. Globally, the university system has been instrumental to most organisations product innovations and research and has contributed immensely to societal growth. They have been at the front-line in providing innovative ideas and engaging in investigations that have helped businesses gain market value and increase the capital base. Consequently, it has become imperative that focus should be placed on the welfare of employees of universities to improve their commitment and approach to their job. That is explicitly the pillar of internal marketing, treating internal customers with dignity, thereby making it easy to satisfy external customers. According to Saad, Ahmed, &Rafiq, (2002) internal marketing (IM) is a strategic and conscious effort of organisations aimed at satisfying its employees with the motive of ensuring that they develop a commitment to meet the satisfaction of the external customers. The success of organisations drive for improved performance begins with the level of dedication and commitment the employees show to the organisations strategic and operational policies. Therefore, internal marketing practices that focus on employees can help influence their belief and trust, which will also be reciprocated (Robinson, 1996). Rafiq and Ahmed (1993) stated that the evolution of internal marketing as a concept could be traced to growing research and attention on employee satisfaction and the need to treat them as customer and jobs as products. Consequently, there have been several studies with increasing literature on the concept. However, there is a gap in the practice of internal marketing because most of the researches on internal marketing are normative with no evidence on how it exists in practice. Further, the review shows the focus has been improving commitment for profit-making in the organisations, thereby making the goal of internal marketing to be productivity in terms of input to output. Subsequently, this study approaches the concept of internal marketing practice and commitment of employees from a qualitative perspective away from most researches that are quantitative. Furthermore, there are limited, and possibly no evident qualitative studies geared towards examining internal marketing practices and commitment of employees in 21st-century public universities in Nigeria, which is the core of the study. It is on the merit of the above-identified gaps that this study seeks to examine Information of Article